Kaiser Permanente Appoints New Regional Presidents
Wendy Watson takes over Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals of the Northwest, and Corwin N. Harper becomes president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia.
Wendy Watson
Effective Feb. 16, 2025, Wendy Watson will take over as president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals of the Northwest. As regional president, she will lead the organization’s focus on providing healthcare and coverage for more than 612,000 members in Oregon and southwest Washington, as well as dental care and coverage for more than 285,000 members.
Watson is a 32-year veteran of Kaiser Permanente of the Northwest, serving the region most recently as chief operating officer. She joined Kaiser Permanente in 1993 and has held a variety of leadership roles across the spectrum of operations, care delivery, and hospital administration.
Watson holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a master’s degree in public health from Portland State University. She also completed an advanced fellowship with the Health Care Advisory Board in Washington, D.C., and an executive fellowship with the Baldrige Foundation.
She is a member of the board of directors for the Hospital Association of Oregon. Watson was named Executive of the Year by the Portland Business Journal in 2022 and has been honored with the Patriot Award by the U.S. Army for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals is part of Kaiser Permanente, a not-for-profit health plan headquartered in Oakland, Calif., and serves 12.5 million members.
Corwin N. Harper
Additionally, Kaiser Permanente has appointed Corwin N. Harper president of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, effective Jan. 21, 2025. As regional health plan president, Harper will lead the organization’s focus on providing integrated, high-quality health care and coverage for more than 327,000 Kaiser Permanente members.
He brings brings 39 years of healthcare and hospital leadership experience to his position as regional president, including 25 years of previous experience at Kaiser Permanente. Most recently, he served as CEO of Ochsner LSU Health North Louisiana, an integrated academic health system with three acute care hospitals, a behavioral health hospital and 20 clinics with more than 600 students, residents and faculty.
Healthcare hasn't been a priority of the second Trump administration so far, panelists at the Asembia agreed. Medicaid may loom large, though, as the administration and congressional Republicans look for ways to slash government spending as a way of offsetting major tax cuts.
Read More
Conversations With Perry and Friends
April 14th 2025Perry Cohen, Pharm.D., a longtime member of the Managed Healthcare Executive editorial advisory board, is host of the Conversations with Perry and Friends podcast. His guest this episode is John Baackes, the former CEO of L.A. Care Health Plan.
Listen
Breaking Down Health Plans, HSAs, AI With Paul Fronstin of EBRI
November 19th 2024Featured in this latest episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite podcast is Paul Fronstin, director of health benefits research at EBRI, who shed light on the evolving landscape of health benefits with editors of Managed Healthcare Executive.
Listen
Survey: What Patients and Providers Are Thinking About Healthcare Access
April 28th 2025Patients and providers found common ground on the importance of correct billing estimates but did not see eye to eye in terms of digital scheduling tool use, according to a new survey by Experian Health.
Read More
